Police: Woman forged judge's signature to get car back

  Eileen Kelley  Cincinatti  Enquirer October 21, 2010

In the game that 34-year-old Nikki Hill is accused by police of playing, the cards would read something more like this: "Under a Judge's Order Please Give Ms. Hill Her Car Back as She Has Sorted Out the Whole Mess with Her Drunken Driving and Suspension Charges."

She hasn't, but police say that didn't deter the Green Township woman on several occasions from presenting bogus documents - altered and/or with fake signatures, including one from a former magistrate - to get her car back.

The bogus document scheme worked twice when Hill marched into the Green Township Police Department and presented documents that released her car back to her after it had been towed on the allegations that she had been driving without a valid license after losing it to a drunken-driving charge.

The law and 10 months of circumventing the system due to jail overcrowding caught up with Hill on Wednesday when she stood before Judge Bernie Bouchard to face multiple misdemeanor driving charges. Little did Hill know that as she stood there, Lt. Vince Cerchio of the Green Township Police Department had just presented felony forgery cases to a Hamilton County grand jury, which resulted in an indictment against Hill.

Cerchio then raced down to Bouchard's courtroom and snapped the cuffs on Hill.

On Thursday, Hill stood before another judge after spending the night in jail. Judge Fanon A. Rucker set bond at $7,500 on the forgery charges as well as tampering with records.

But even if Hill manages to come up with the bond money, she'll be staying put in jail to serve out the 148 days she was ordered to serve by Judge Brad Greenberg back in January on unrelated misdemeanor charges that involved a theft conviction.

Because of overcrowding, Hill, who first reported to jail in January on that charge, has been sent home nine times.

"She's going to stay here," said Steve Barnett, a spokesman for the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office.

In fact she could be staying a lot longer.

Hill made headlines a year ago when she attempted to cheat the Dent School House Haunted House out of $7,450 in ticket sales when she set up shop outside a nearby Kroger to sell stolen tickets that she maintains she purchased on Craigslist. While trying to sell the tickets outside the grocery store, a banner hung above her stating half the proceeds were going to breast cancer research. In that case, Hill was charged with both a felony receiving stolen property charge as well as the two misdemeanors, the later two that were dealt with in Greenberg's court.

In the felony charge, a judge last December spared Hill a jail sentence and instead ordered her to four years of probation, saying she was suffering from some sort of mental breakdown.

If the recent forgery charges - which are felonies - stand, that probation could be revoked and she could find herself in jail for at least five years.

That would suit Greenberg just fine. Police say the documents Hill used to get her car back from Green Township police have Greenberg's name on them.

"The signature was clearly baloney," said Greenberg. "She has a nose for trouble."

Provided Police say Nikki Hill, 34, presented false documents several times to officials, including once to get her car out of